Cosy Mysteries

The Cosy Knave

– my first Knavesborough novel, featuring Rhapsody Gershwin and her fiancé, Constable Archibald Penrose.

The vicious attacks begin when the prodigal son of Knavesborough, Mark Baldwin, returns to the sleepy village after forty years in Argentina, fully equipped with fame, fortune and effeminate butler. Small wonder that the spiteful nosey parker Rose Walnut-Whip is stabbed, but how could the murderer get away with shattering the perfect, English tearoom idyll in front of twenty villagers?

A couple of reviews

“When I first began reading THE COZY KNAVE, I wondered if I was reading a satire of murder mysteries. The names of the characters made me chuckle, and I thought perhaps the story would be comical. However, it wasn’t long before I found myself getting involved in the real story and in the activities and characters of Knavesborough. …. Kudos to Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen for weaving a bit of lightheartedness into a perfectly cozy mystery.”

“The people living in this sleepy little village all have their faults, secrets, and motives. In contrast with the coziness of the setting, the story has real suspense and danger. An excellent choice for cozy mystery lovers.”

“I think what Dorte has accomplished for mystery writing in “The Cosy Knave” is what James Heriot did for his “All Creatures Great and Small” genre. I thought of the Heriots more than once as I was reading this lovely book.”

If you like the Midsomer Murders television series, based on the mysteries of Caroline Graham (and which the The Cozy Knave  actually mentions),  you are a fair way toward enjoying this book already.

This book is a perfect read for a lazy afternoon. With a cup of tea. It’s your typical cosy with lots of characters, lots of banter and of course, a murder.

Author Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen’s smooth flowing dialect and vivid details will have you smelling scones and reaching for a cup of tea. The quirky play on names (Kickinbottom, Cadbury-Flake, Warburton, etc.) is an added delight. 

But don’t be fooled, THE COSY KNAVE is also filled with suspense, intrigue and enough red herrings to keep you guessing until the end. There are twists and turns, and a few surprises along the way. Penrose and Gershwin make a charming and likeable pair of sleuths. Can’t wait to see what their next adventure is.

Cozy mysteries like “The Cosy Knave” transport readers into a kinder, gentler world for a fun escape. I loved the clever names, the plays on words, the humor, and the peaceful world that Dorte Jakobsen created. Rhapsody is a sleuth you’ll pull for. I’m looking forward to the author’s next mystery.

It is, as the title suggests, a ‘cosy’ mystery and it’s an easy, fun read. But it’s not as simple as it seems for I was completely baffled about who the killer could be until very near the end. I swayed towards one character and another until I realised that’s who did it. And then there was a final revelation that I hadn’t foreseen at all! (August 8th)

I think the book displays the best elements of a cosy mystery, including that insular village life they are so famous for and a minimal amount of violence. Happily (for me at least) the book eschews the elements of cosies I’m not as fond of, including talking animals and ghosts. It is recommended to those of you who enjoy a light-hearted traditional mystery with lashings of red herrings and a nomenclature that will keep a smile on your face throughout.

 

 

Heather Farm – a ghost story

Amazon reviews:

“Short but full of wonder”

Heather Farm was a short but complex book to read. It fit my style of reading: short enough to read in one sitting, but long enough to give a very good detail of the settings and characters.

“Heather Farm” is a very charming story that is short and very easy to read. It’s easy to follow and has a nice beginning and a very nice ending. Dorte Jakobsen has set the story in an old house that used to be called “Heather Farm” and it sits beside a lighthouse and by the sea. The young couple who buy it have to restore it to its former beauty, but before they finish doing that, they must deal with a ghost and ghostly dreams that lead them to find some surprising things on the property.
This is a very good mystery with a not-so-scary ghost and with living relatives of the ghost who are more worrisome than the ghost could ever be. I highly recommend this story to anyone who likes short stories. Its charm and setting make me want to read it again.

This is a very concise and well-written short story. The author’s words are spare but at the same time well-chosen and meaningful. The writing is not overly dramatic, yet the mood she sets is haunting just the same. If you like a true ghost story, that feeling of the past lingering in the present in order finally to settle things, you’ll enjoy this story. It’s moody and just a little bitter-sweet. A good read.

This is a quick, sweet story. It’s about a young couple who buys their first house, where the wife is visited by an old woman who used to own it. After that the wife starts dreaming about the family who lived there before. It’s a ghost story but not in the horror genre-it’s not at all scary, at least to me. It is self-contained, unlike a lot of the freebie short stories out there that are teasers to get you to buy the novels. It’s a 10 minute read that is well worth checking out.